July 21, 2005

Scalia with cute kids

The Bush administration will be desperate to frame the fight in terms of Roberts's ample qualifications, his bipartisan group of friends, his fine education and his lovely family.

Roberts's opponents need to lift the argument to the level of principle. It doesn't matter how nice or smart Roberts may be. What matters is that on a court where so many cases have been decided by 5-to-4 votes, Roberts's convictions and philosophy matter far more than his biography.

If you doubt this, consider that no one disputes Justice Antonin Scalia's intelligence or sense of humor. Many of us would welcome the chance to have Scalia as a professor. But outside the ranks of the right wing, few Americans want their country defined consistently by Scalia's choices. In shifting the balance on the court, Roberts could give Scalia the power to impose his worldview.

Yes. And I think that last bit is particularly well said. Who except the most lunatic right-wing fringe wants to be ruled by Scalia's choices?

Now what are the chances that the Dem leadership will make this kind of argument? Not good, given that they can't even get the "moderates" to keep their mouths shut. But I sure hope Harry Reid is reading Dionne's columns.

Comments

Even the San Francisco Chronicle ran a front-page story on how well-qualified Roberts is, and on how he is a 'shoo-in'.

This just above the point where they write about how he approves of dragging 12-year-old girls off to jail in chains for eating one french fry on public transit.

Michael, this fight is lost. Only a disaster will bring the USA to its senses, and that disaster will be martial law imposed to regain order once the price of oil jumps to $100 per barrel. By then we will have all the civil rights of Turkey or Iran if we are lucky.

Comfort and complacency have brought the Democratic party to its knees. You seem to be perplexed as to how Democrats could be so wantonly stupid as to roll over without a fight on Roberts. Well, try this on for size.

Roberts is the quintessential friend of bidness. He believes in free and unfettered Kapitallizm, which in today's world translates into shameless greed in search of the almighty buck. Roberts is the friend of all the corporate sugar daddies who bankroll the election-year campaign war chests of both the Democrats and the Republicans.

You seem amazed that a 'moderate' like Liebermann, who wears his menorah on his sleeve, would come out in favor of a fascist like Roberts. I am yawning. I have seen this coming for a decade, ever since Clinton ran up the dot-bomb fiasco to full fervor.

The plain truth is that ever since the Soviet Union imploded, there has been no credible opposing force to fascism in the world. The plain truth is that the USA imported all those fascists from Nazi Germany after the war and began work on the 'final solution' all over again. The plain truth is that these fanatics and fools, as Arianna calls them, will not be satisfied until they personally bring on Armageddon.

Who would have thought that the USA would dispense with habeus corpus? Our country is founded on freedom. In just 230 years we have come full circle, and now we are the colonial power rotting from within even as our illegitimate rulers struggle ever more vainly to dominate the entire world. Now we know what it felt like to live under Hitler in the early days, before the repression got really bad. We see how easy it is for good people to avert eyes and hope the nightmare goes away.

If there is any single person in the USA who agrees that somewhere between 100,000 and 1 milliion Iraqi deaths at the hands of the US are morally justified, let him or her speak now.

Here is the court document regarding the "french fry" incident. I don't think blaming a judge for something a Code in the city or state law books states is a deliquent act and has authority to arrest a minor is the argument you guys have here.

The argument is why there is a law in the books in the DC area that prohibits eating and drinking near a rail transit station. I am sure that it is posted all over the place not to eat or drink there. Is that a logical law, I don't know, I don't live there. But again blaming a judge for interpreting a law as it is stated is not the problem....and not a deficit of John Roberts, as I see it.

Sorry, anyone who supports dragging twelve-year-old girls off to jail in chains for eating one french fry in public is completely insane, as are you for defending Roberts on this. Where is your outrage? That child is emotionally scarred forever. Have we suddenly been teleported to Singapore? Nazi Germany?